UCI medical, tech students complete app battle

Before judging, team members express confidence in their Global EMR medical app. They won second place in the Med AppJam competition held at UC Irvine recently. More than 100 medical as well as information and computer science students competed for more than a week in developing apps for health/medical use.H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Smartphones and tablets could one day become as essential to medicine as stethoscopes and thermometers.

With that future in mind, 30 UC Irvine medical students joined forces with 100 Computer Science students for the university's first Med App Jam. Eighteen teams competed to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad. The winners were announced last week, with the top award going to Life Buoy, which allows users in a natural disaster to find relief centers or request prescription refills.

Dr. Ralph Clayman, dean of the Medical School , said as medicine becomes more mobile, patients will use their devices to communicate with their doctors beyond what was once limited to the exam room.

"They're going to carry their doctor around with them all the time," Clayman said.

Medical student Jonathan Lin worked on an app called Spot Doc, which allows patients to send a photo of a suspicious mole to a dermatologist for further review.

"We wanted it more as a link between them – getting the patient to see the doctor rather than be the doctor," Lin said.

Another patient-centric app allows parents to easily track their baby's height, weight and head circumference, all in pink or blue.

For doctors, apps ranged from a tool for reporting near medical mistakes to hospital administrators to decoding shorthand notes and abbreviations into understandable sentences in a chart.

The students, who logged hours and hours of their own extracurricular time, will have the option of putting their apps on iTunes, although some would need to do more work.

Medical student Brenton Alexander plans to test the success of his project Saturday when he volunteers at a clinic in Valle Redondo, Mexico.

About a year ago, the Flying Samaritans group stopped transporting 450 medical files across the border and attempted a shift to electronic medical records. There are existing apps that can easily create records, but none that could work in the area's technological isolation. Without electricity, Wi-Fi or 3G cellphone access, the volunteers improvised with a spreadsheet transmitted by Bluetooth.

But the makeshift system frequently crashed, and the spreadsheet was not user-friendly or intuitive.

"It's been mayhem," Alexander said. "It hasn't worked out at all."

The new app, called Global EMR, uses a standard medical form with pull-down options and will repopulate a patient's information at every visit. It also is bilingual.

"Other people who are normally dealing with all this hassle will be able to spend time with patients," Alexander said. "We took all the problems we ever had with this and fixed them all here."

The team of six, including four computer Science students, spent about 80 hours developing the app, which was awarded second place.

Medical student Kambria Nguyen worked on the third-place winner, HappierU. The app helps mental health patients rate their daily moods, along with an explanation if desired, to share with their doctors. The app also includes a reminder to take medication and provides resources, including suicide prevention.

"It's an easy way for patients to take care of themselves," Nguyen said. "Everyone has their phone and it's really quick and easy to track their mood."

Before judging, team members express confidence in their Global EMR medical app. They won second place in the Med AppJam competition held at UC Irvine recently. More than 100 medical as well as information and computer science students competed for more than a week in developing apps for health/medical use. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Competition judge Mary Frances Ypma-Wong, second from left , listens as team members describe the attributes of the LifeBuoy medical app they created. The team was awarded first place and $1,000 for producing the app. More than 100 UC Irvine medical as well as information and computer science students competed for more than a week in developing apps for health/medical use. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The attributes of the first place-winning LifeBuoy medical app are highlighted across iOS devices. On Nov. 9, the Med AppJam kicked off with about 115 students assigned to 19 teams consisting of students from the School of Information and Computer Sciences and the School of Medicine. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Team members say their Global EMR medical app simplifies medical record-taking. This screenshot shows a drop-down menu with submenus layered beneath it. The questions posed are ones medical students would typically ask a patient. Global EMR was awarded second place in the Med AppJam competition held at UC Irvine recently. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Team No. 12 students produced a PediaLog medical app that tracks developmental milestones of infants 0-12 months. This is the male screen pictured. A female input screen is also available. If this beta version is expanded, the app could encompass older age groups, say team members. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
UC Irvine student Andrew Lam explains to a judge what his team's Pocket Doc medical app is all about. Medical as well as information- and computer-science students competed for more than a week in developing apps for health/medical use. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A NearMiss medical app is demonstrated in foreground, while a chart in background helps explain the app's attributes. More than 100 UC Irvine medical as well as information- and computer-science students competed in Med AppJam to develop apps for health/medical use. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Students developed a Med Track medical app to communicate records and appointments so they can be tracked by both the physician and patient. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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